Speeches by Baker.

“Could you just remind us what those four or five changes are, and how optimistic are you that progress is being made in those areas?”

“Mr Rich, you have actually answered the points I was going to raise about the Scottish register and my experience of that, having worked in the third sector as well, and it is very limited in terms of what evidence can be put into the register.”

“In terms of Scottish legislation, it also includes a requirement for charities and third sector organisations to register lobbying, which is in fact campaigning activity. It is hugely burdensome, and it is not clear how much information it provides around dialogue between charities, Government and Parliament. Do you se…”

“The previous Government launched a post-legislative scrutiny exercise, which our predecessor Committee reported on. At that time, the previous Government ruled out legislative changes but suggested a number of mechanisms by which they could improve the transparency of lobbying. What work has followed on from that proce…”

“Post-legislative scrutiny is a valuable process but only if it is done properly and actually acted upon; I could not agree with you more, Mr Rich. Have you had any discussions with the current Government about changes to lobbying rules in light of that process and the predecessor Committee’s report?”

“In fact, many people would say that there should be far more ability to register. You are actually not able to register events of meetings or phone calls, and that should be the case in Scotland. If we are making improvements to the register here, would you expect that those kinds of engagements with Ministers, and ind…”

“The Bill addresses fundamental flaws in our current mental health legislation in relation to the rights of people with learning disabilities and autistic people. I will focus my comments on new clauses 32 and 33, which I have tabled. They are also about vital rights within our mental health legislation and relate close…”

“Good afternoon, Sir Ian. As a Scottish MP, I am particularly interested in the issue of harmonising the collection and production of data across the UK with the devolved Administrations. As a former principal of the great University of Aberdeen, you will have a particular perspective on this from your experience over t…”

“Were there any Administrations that you found to be particularly resistant to harmonisation?”

“It is very sad. In the longer term, if we want to fix this issue, it will take funding. Are there any other further steps that should be taken?”

“Professor Lievesley recommended that, in a future spending round, the Treasury should ensure that funding is available to support harmonisation, but this money does not appear to be made available. We heard in a recent session that the ONS has withdrawn funding previously used to harmonise UK data in favour of addressi…”

“Were there any particular issues caused by the Scottish census taking place in a different year from the English census?”

“Can the Minister assure me that, along with the huge defence contracts that this Government have already secured for shipyards in Scotland, this strategy will also offer great opportunities for fabrication yards, including at Methil in my constituency? It was saved from closure by Labour Ministers, and its brilliant wo…”

“Good morning, Mr Norman. I would like to ask you about the balance between time in the Chamber for statements and other business of Parliament. When the Leader of the House came to Committee, one of the defences made by the Government regarding this issue is that there have been so many ministerial statements in the Se…”

“Finally from me, on written statements, I think you responded substantively to this point in your answers to Charlotte Cane. But can you see no situation where it would be satisfactory for a major policy to be announced via a written statement? I was in Holyrood for 12 years. Quite often, SNP Ministers would issue a wr…”

“The Government recently protected Opposition time by providing a business of the House motion to allow for statements. Would you like to see more of that?”

“It is always a clear-cut call, then, when analysing and assessing what level of importance a policy announcement has—whether it would be a satisfactory process to announce it to the House or not.”

“That is very helpful. Thank you very much.”

“As you said, the Independent Adviser has told us that he does not view it as falling under his remit to assess whether there has been a breach of the principle set out in chapter 9.1 that “the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.” Who should therefore det…”

“Thank you, Simon. Good morning. My questions are also on how we can have effective accountability of Ministers in terms of parliamentary scrutiny. The Ministerial Code, of course, has a role in that too. You said that you take the Ministerial Code and the principles set out in chapter 9.1, in particular, very seriously…”